Sustainable Development
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This part of the globalissues.org web site attempts to introduce the issue of development and sustainable development. Sustainable Development is often an over-used word, but goes to the heart of tackling a number of inter-related global issues such as poverty, inequality, hunger and environmental degradation.
In theory, development that is sustainable and not damaging to the planet is very possible. Of course though, in reality there are a lot of politics and challenges involved as highlighted throughout this site.
This section is woefully small to start off with, and hardly covers the issues in enough depth, though over time, I hope to add more articles to the ones below.
Sustainable Development Introduction
The idea of sustainable development grew from numerous environmental movements in earlier decades. Summits such as the Earth Summit in Rio, Brazil, 1992, were major international meetings to bring sustainable development to the mainstream. However, the record on moving towards sustainability so far appears to have been quite poor. The concept of sustainability means many different things to different people, and a large part of humanity around the world still live without access to basic necessities. Last updated Thursday, May 26, 2005.
Read article: Sustainable Development Introduction
Poverty and the Environment
The causes of poverty and of environmental degradation are inter-related suggesting that approaching sustainable development requires understanding the issues from many angles, not just say an environmentalist or economics perspective alone. Last updated Saturday, February 12, 2005.
Read article: Poverty and the Environment
Non-governmental Organizations on Development Issues
What does an ever-increasing number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) mean? NGOs are non-profit organizations filling the gap where governments will not, or cannot function. In the past however, some NGOs from the wealthy nations have received a bad reputation in some developing nations because of things like arrogance, imposition of their views, being a foreign policy arm or tool of the original country and so on. Even in recent years some of these criticisms still hold. However, recently some new and old NGOs alike, have started to become more participatory and grassroots-oriented to help empower the people they are trying to help, to help themselves. This is in general a positive turn. Yet, the fact that there are so many NGOs popping up everywhere perhaps points to failures of international systems of politics, economics, markets, and basic rights. Last updated Wednesday, June 01, 2005.
Read article: Non-governmental Organizations on Development Issues
US and Foreign Aid Assistance
The US being the wealthiest, strongest and most influential nation, it is worth seeing how their actions or inaction affect other nations. One notable area is regarding the issue of debt and poverty. Being a major part of the IMF, World Bank and even helping to formulate the UN about 50 years ago, their actions can be felt around the world. Last updated Sunday, April 27, 2008.
Read article: US and Foreign Aid Assistance
G8: Too Much Power? 
The G8 (the G7—United States, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Germany, Canada—and Russia) make up the most powerful economies and militaries in the world. Together, their influence on world affairs is enormous, and their annual summits become a focal point for global protests and campaigns on issues such as poverty, aid, trade, climate change, Africa, development, and so on. Posted Sunday, June 10, 2007.
Read article: G8: Too Much Power?
Water and Development
Issues such as water privatization are important in the developing world especially as it goes right to the heart of water rights, profits over people, and so on. This article looks into these issues and the impacts it has on people around the world. Last updated Saturday, September 01, 2007.
Read article: Water and Development
Brain Drain of Workers from Poor to Rich Countries
Brain drain is a problem for many poor countries losing skilled workers to richer countries. In healthcare, the effects can often be seen vividly. For example, in many rich countries, up to one third of doctors may be from abroad, many from Sub-Sahara Africa, while many African countries have as little as 500 doctors serving their entire population. Reasons for this brain drain vary, ranging from poor conditions domestically to attractive opportunities and active enticement from abroad. Posted Friday, April 14, 2006.
Read article: Brain Drain of Workers from Poor to Rich Countries
World Summit on Sustainable Development
This section introduces some of the issues on the international summit (August 26 - September 4, 2002) where thousands of delegates met to discuss various issues comprising sustainable development. Of course, there was a lot of controversy including differences between the global North and South on all sorts of issues such as corporate-led globalization, privatization of energy, water, health, etc. In addition there was also concern about motives and influences of large corporations on the outcomes of the Summit. Last updated Saturday, September 07, 2002.
Read article: World Summit on Sustainable Development
United Nations on Development Issues
The United Nations is the largest international body involved in development issues around the world. However, it has many political issues and problems to contend with. But, despite this, it is also performing some much needed tasks around the world, through its many satellite organizations and entities, providing a means to realize the Declaration of Human Rights. Unfortunately though, it is not perfect and is negatively affected by politics of powerful nations that wish to further their own interests. Last updated Wednesday, July 25, 2001.
Read article: United Nations on Development Issues
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Anup Shah, Sustainable Development, GlobalIssues.org, Last updated: Sunday, April 27, 2008
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Other pages in this section
These are the pages within this section on this web site that you can also read.
- You are here: Sustainable Development
- Sustainable Development Introduction
- Poverty and the Environment
- Non-governmental Organizations on Development Issues
- US and Foreign Aid Assistance
- G8: Too Much Power?
- Water and Development
- Brain Drain of Workers from Poor to Rich Countries
- World Summit on Sustainable Development
- United Nations on Development Issues